Movies, that had been astonishing to you the most?

[Trenchfriend]

Enemy at the gates (2001).

I was never a fan of war-movies and would never expect much, but:

Holy cow, WHAT A SETTING!

I watched it only once, years ago on my brilliant CRT-TV.

 

[Edward]

I remember when I finally got the chance to see Texas Chainsaw Massacre on the big screen, uncut, back in the 90s. Various sequels, prequels and remakes have come and gone, but little comes close to the intensity of the original. Also back in the 90s, I remember Event Horizon being a big-impact on the big screen; also, the first time I saw Fight Club. In 2009, I went to see Watchmen three times in one week, I loved it so much. Probably the best opening credits to any film ever. The most recent film that really wowed me on the big screen was Joker, though in terms of a film that truly spoke to me about my own experience, that would have been Trainspotting 2. Not that I've ever done heroin, but T2 is a film not about drugs but about a man in his middle forties dealing with nostaliga for his own early twenties. When Johnny Lee Miller turns to Ewan Magregor and says "You're a tourist in your own youth, Mark", he's speaking directly to all of us that got caught up in the hype around the first film during our undergraduate years.

There are other films that have had that wow factor for me later on - for instance, Stand By Me. Enjoyed it well enough when I saw it as a kid of fifteen, just a year or two older than the kids in the film, but when I rewatched it years later, as an adult in my thirties, I viewed it in a very different way; there was a realisation that it's very much a film not about kids but about an adult looking back on being a kid. I probably see it subtly differently again now that I'm passing through middle age and feel al ot closer to death than birth.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

The God Father

 

[Frunobulax]

It was several years after The Exorcist was released that I finally saw it from beginning to end. I've always wanted a movie that literally frightened me and made me look under my bed for a while afterward. This wasn't it, but it came close. The whole 'demon/devil is real" vibe is what likely did it, plus heavy Catholic symbolism. But at least at the point that I was watching the movie, it was...unsettling.

I have seen Saving Private Ryan once. It was one of the most fantastic movies I have ever seen, but it is doubtful I will watch it again.

Also agree with Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Seeing that for the first time on the big screen was a real trip.

On another, lighter, Grade B flick experience, is Motel Hell. Starring old cowboy actor Rory Calhoun. I was a teenager and saw it on a cheapo, second-run double feature bill. It's not that great of a movie. It's not scary (in fact it's kinda humorous). But if you stick with it until the end, you've been treated to one of the greatest set-ups for a bad joke ever conceived.

 

[Worf]

Good question.
"The Exorcist" - I couldn't sleep for a whole week. Kept waiting for the bed to start shaking. I had to pass 2 graveyards to get home after seeing that film... never ran so fast in my entire life before or since.

"Saving Private Ryan" - The first 30 minutes of that film disturbed me so much that I left feeling quite mad. I served 3.5 years so people WOULD NOT have to see such things and they go put that on the big screen for anyone to watch?

"Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind" - To a kid raised reading early and classic Sci-Fi and Pulp reprints of the 30's and 40's this trio of films was manna from heaven! Wow!

"12 Years a Slave" - Some people need to see such things so they'll stop denying it ever happened here in America. I never watched it again.

"Schindler's List" - Some people need to see such things so they'll stop denying it ever happened at all. I never watched it again.

Worf

 

[Edward]

The Wicker Man - I was aware of its existence as a cult film, then I watched it on an old, B&W portable TV in my bedroom, late one Friday night in my undergraduate years. Gave me the willies like probably no other horror before or since.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Abel Gance's "Napoleon," made in 1927, seen in 1983 in a movie palace with live orchestral accompaniment. The peak of silent filmmaking.

 

[Seb Lucas]

A few years ago I saw a brand new print of Psycho with a live string orchestra providing the music. That was pretty wild. It's a score I know intimately and the performance was exceptional.

 

[Doctor Damage]

William Friedkin's 1977 film Sorcerer. Got a copy on dvd last year and sat their with my mouth open the whole movie struggling to believe a movie like that had been made.

 

[M Brown]

I'm still a big fan of Empire of the Sun (and just about every other movie Christian Bale has been in).